Primary Science Workshops

Primary school science workshops with a WOW!

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INCREDIBLE INVENTIONS KS1/KS2 school workshop details

Based intially upon our extremely popular Victorian Inventions workshop, our "Incredible Inventions" science workshop allows us to move outside the Victorian era to focus on some of the more modern inventions.


With a choice to look at four inventions from a range of eight on offer, this is one of our most adaptable science workshops which can be easily matched to your curriculum and the needs of different classes.


The inventions to choose from are automobiles, aeroplanes, rockets, steam power, electric telegraph (morse code), photography, recorded music and the Ipad, which all come with a short presentation combining models, actual historic artefacts and HD  video presentations before the pupils undertake a related activity as follows.

In an activity shared with our Victorian Inventions workshop, pupils experience the thrill of the development of steam power by reliving the magnificent Rainhill trials that launched Stephenson's Rocket into fame and paved the way for the growth of the railways.


After an introduction explaining the science behind steam power, pupils are told about the merits of each train from the Rainhill trials and vote via cheers on the likely winner, before meeting our working Stephenson's Rocket.


After this, the pupils take turns to power Rocket around our 25ft track, in a race against classmates.

A highly adaptable workshop looking at four from a choice of eight inventions with related fun activities - perfect for a two day wow experience

INVENTION 1: Steam power (Y2 upwards to KS2)

After a short introduction and video explanation of Karl Benz's first 1885 motorcar, we look at the development of the automobile into the 600 million plus vehicles worldwide that we recognise today.


The related activity for this invention involves pupils designing their own rocket car in either pairs or alone to race against fellow pupils.  Several competitive challenges are then possible depending on your space and needs, from an aerodynamic challenge where pupils make wings to enable their car to run straight, to speed or distance challenges which are equally good fun and a great way to learn about the intricacies of car aerodynamics in one of the most fun activities in this science workshop.

In another activity shared with our Victorian Inventions workshop, we start by looking at a variety of genuine historical cameras, from an 1880 wooden bellows camera to a Kodak box brownie and a modern nikon DSLR, before moving on to dressing in Victorian clothes to take pictures of each other using the brass lens from the 1880 camera.


What is more, after the session you get to keep all your images to use for further work in class when the workshop is finished, while of course we delete the originals from our camera in accordance with our company child protection policy.

ENQUIRE NOW about this workshop

using steam train in our inventions school workshop pupils using 1880 lens in primary school workshop making rocket car in science workshop boys admirinf steam train in inventions primary workshop boy powering steam train in inventions science workshop stephenson's rocket in school workshop

INVENTION 3: Photography (Y2 upwards to KS2)

INVENTION 2: the automobile (KS2 only)

designing cars in our inventions school workshop firing rocket cars in our inventions school workshop making a rocket car in our inventions school workshop

Power Stephenson's Rocket!

Make and race rocket cars!

Take a photo with a genuine Victorian 1880 lens!

boys using camera in our inventions primary science workshop wearing victorian costumes for our inventions primary science workshop old cameras in our inventions primary science workshop

INVENTION 4: Aeroplanes (KS2 only)

This activity starts with a look at the history of flight, starting with the first manned aeroplane flight by the Wright brothers in 1903 with the aid of detailed scale models and a video presentation.


This is followed by an explanation of Bernoulli's principle, which demonstrates  how plane wings create lift in order to fly, before pupils embark on a quest to build the best paper aeroplane from a variety of supplied instruction sheets.  This is then followed by an electric launch against classmates to see which plane design glides the furthest.

Launch paper planes with our electric launchers!

making planes in our inventions primary science workshop launching planes in our inventions primary science workshop demonstrating lift in our inventions primary science workshop

INVENTION 5: The Electric Telegraph (KS2 only)

This session begins with a look at the history of the electric telegraph, from its invention by Cooke and Wheatsone in 1838, through to the introduction of Morse code by Samuel Morse in 1844, and finally towards its use in both world wars in sending coded messages between the front lines.


Pupils then use our real WW2 telegraph set to send and solve a coded WW2 puzzle message together with their class mates.


If you are more interested in the WW2 use of this invention, it also features prominently in our Blitz School WW2 workshop.

Use a real WW2 Morse Code set to solve a mystery!

telegraph key in our inventions primary school workshop boys sending morse code in our inventions primary school workshop morse code card in our inventions primary science workshop

INVENTION 6: Space rockets (KS2 only)

Shared with our Rockets to Rovers workshop, this activity explores the forces of thrust, gravity and air resistance behind rocket power, beginning with an interactive presentation including HD videos of rocket launches.


This is followed by pupils making their own paper rockets to launch  either skywards for a height challenge (weather permitting) or across the hall or classroom towards targets for an accuracy challenge.

Design and fire your own paper rocket!

launching paper rockets in our inventions primary school workshop making paper rockets in our inventions primary school workshop launching indoors rockets in our inventions primary school workshop

(KS1 NOTE: Due to difficulty level, the minimim year group is Y2 and some are for KS2 only, please see notes in brackets)

INVENTION 8: The Ipad (y2 upwards to KS2)

Shared with our Light workshop, this activity moves our timeline right up to the modern age with a look at the incredible computing power of modern digital devices such as the ipad.


In this perfect accompaniment to the photography inventions task, pupils learn about the properties of light and how modern apps can be used to manipulate this by using our bespoke app and fibre optic torches to make incredible light paintings that you can keep and print out for their topic books or a display afterwards.

Make amazing light pictures!

INVENTION 7: Recorded music (KS2 only)

Shared with our Wonder of Sound workshop, this activity starts by us listening and looking at the history of recorded sound with our wonderful original Thomas Edison phonograph, learning about how it worked and the impact it has had on the modern world.


We then move on to listening to and looking at music boxes, with pupils making their own songs to play for their classmates using a simple paper strip that they can play on our machines during the workshop then keep to paste in their topic books afterwards.

Listen to a real phonograph and make your own music box songs

recordable music box strips for pupils to keep making a music box song in our sound workshop listening to a real Edison phonograph in our sound workshop Incredible ipad light pictures Incredible ipad light pictures Incredible ipad light pictures